Former military chiefs left public life quietly to keep army strong to face Morsi

The former head of Egypt’s Military Council and his deputy left public life “quietly”, it has been claimed, in order to keep the army strong in the face of now-ousted President Mohammed Morsi. Lieutenant-General Sami Anan said that the Head of the Military Council, Field Marshal Mosheer Tantawi, and himself left military and political life altogether after being sacked by the then president. He claimed Morsi increased his powers in order to “immunise” himself and his presidential decrees.

“We accepted Morsi in order not to cause divisions in the army,” Anan told the London-based newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. “Let’s look back at what happened when we were sacked and compare the situation with what happened later.” He affirmed that the Military Council recognised the nature of that stage.

Anan insisted that when Morsi announced the Constitutional Decree that made it impossible to appeal against his decisions, the people “revolted against him” on June 30. “The people of Egypt then found the military institution strong and standing alongside them,” he pointed out.

According to the lieutenant-general, the military institution is the force that safeguards the country’s integrity. He also alleged that if he and Tantawi had not gone quietly then the situation in Egypt would have been similar to that in Syria and Libya.